First Pacemaker Recipient Dies

Published 1:19 pm, Monday, April 25, 2016

Arne Larsson, a Swedish heart patient who received the first implanted pacemaker in 1958, has died at 86.

Larsson died in his home in the Stockholm suburb of Saltsjoe-Duvnaes on Dec. 28 after a long illness, Aasa Swanberg, a spokeswoman for St. Jude Medical Inc., said Tuesday. The U.S. company took over the Swedish firm that developed and manufactured the first pacemaker.

Larsson's operation on Oct. 8, 1958 in Stockholm was done to treat a heart block condition known as Stokes-Adams syndrome, which slows the heartbeat and decreases blood flow to the brain.

The pacemaker was implanted by Dr. Ake Senning, a cardiac surgeon, and developed by Dr. Rune Elmqvist, a medical device engineer. It used only two transistors and was the size of a hockey puck.

The device used tiny shocks to return Larsson's heart to 70 beats per minute, and his condition improved immediately. But within five hours, the history-making pacemaker stopped.

Senning implanted a second pacemaker that Elmqvist had built, and Larsson was out of the hospital within two weeks.

The operation sparked a moral debate on whether mechanical devices should be placed in the human body to sustain life. It also paved the way for other advances in medical implants, such as the artificial heart.

Pacemaker technology has advanced dramatically since the first implant. Current devices are as small as a half-dollar and use computer technology, advanced sensors and the equivalent of up to 500,000 transistors. Pacemakers are prescribed by physicians to more than 500,000 patients worldwide each year, St. Jude Medical said.

Since his first operation, Larsson had received 26 pacemakers, according to St. Jude, based in Little Canada, Minn.

Until his health began deteriorating last year, Larsson appeared at many clinical meetings and was an ambassador for the pacemaker industry. On Oct. 8, 1998, Larsson rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange to commemorate the 40th anniversary of his implant.

"In retrospect, the risks these individuals took on October 8, 1958, at the Karolinska hospital in Stockholm were immense, but Arne's life was saved and an industry that now provides life-enhancing technology to millions of people around the world began on that day," said Terry Shepherd, St. Jude's chief executive officer.

Larsson is survived by his wife, Else-Marie, and two children. A funeral was scheduled for Jan. 29.